Home Distiller

OK, I hoped to never have to bother you seemingly nice people because every question I've had prior to this one I was able to find on the search feature. Not so lucky today...(I am truly sorry if I just missed this in a search)

Here's the deal: I have a quaint little 2 gallon still, I ran 3 water runs to clean out, everything worked beautifully on those. This is my first distillation and I'm using a sugar wash, and it should have distilled out to be around 51%ABV, but it ended up being 71%. Are my instruments wrong, or is that fairly common? and another thing, I screwed up and distilled it far too hot starting out at about 84 degrees Celsius, I know that rubbing alcohol and other unwanted things should be coming through at that temp. (or so I think I've read). I know I've read you can put your tails in your next wash and it will clean them up, but will it work when there's that much? I just don't want to poison myself or somebody else lol

Another thing, in spite of how good I've cleaned it, there was some sediment. Just as an experiment I filtered it through a coffee filter and it actually got most of it. If I redistill it with the next wash will that still come through, or should I just let it help clean my sink drain?

sorry about the horribly long first post, and thanks for actually taking the time to read it.

1. Welcome aboard

2. If you are using a pot still, 71% is not uncommon when you first start stripping. I strip down to about 40% then start collecting tails.

3. Temp. on a pot still is more for reference. Mine will go from 170f to 190f in a matter of seconds and stay there for hours. Go by taste and smell more than temp.

4. Tails taste bad but won't poison you, unless you drink a whole lot of tails. Anything can kill you if you drink enough.

5. If you had sediment in your distillate, there more than likely was something in you piping or condenser.

I'd ditch the first run, I know you said you did three water runs to clean everything out but as you found out nothing cleans better than hot alcohol. As for the question on %, it's pretty hard to answer without more info on the type of still you are running.

Thanks for the quick replies, I'm sorry I forgot to post what kind of still I'm using. It's a pot still for one. It's a pretty run of the mill 2 gallon stainless steel pot with a 20 inch copper column and condensor.

Thanks for the advice, I'll just pour this batch down the drain.

I gather you have pot still first you wont kill no one
if
you get heads -tales all you get is headache
70% sometimes depends on still
settlement? run too fast "Too hot"
Save Them run again

Pot stills pretty much run themselves as far as temp goes. The temp it settles on is determined by how much abv the liquid in the pot has. 83c sounds about right for low wines...but that would be kind of high for a "wash" (ie..starting abv about 47%) There's a chart in the "theory" section of the main site that explains this. (abv liquid/vapor relationship to temp).

Normally, on a wash run (say about 10-13%) the pot head vapor temp will settle in on about 92-93c and stick for a while. On a low wine run (2nd run) it will stick somewhere around 80-83c.

You didn't happen to run this twice did you? Either that, or your thermometer is in the pot..and not at the top of your vapor path. Temp inside the pot is an entirely different thing. As long as you are measuring vapor temp, whatever the variance...you can check it against the chart in the theory section and learn what the offset is.

I'd keep that first batch, just don't drink it. It is a good cleaner, bug killer, fire starter if its high proof...